Jig Sticks 101

[THE DARKHORSE]

My reply was in jest, Bob. You know that. The fact is your questions, as important as they all are, would take five pages of text to answer. My best advice would be to go somewhere that has a large selection of jig-sticks and pull on them yourself. For the largest selection in San Diego I would suggest going to Dana or Seaforth landing. They have most every top brand jig-stick in stock.

I have a factory wrapped Seeker Ulua 93H, a custom wrapped Seeker Ulua 93H, a custom wrapped Calstar 100J with six inches cut off the tip, and a Super Seeker CJB100H with six inches cut off the tip. These are my favorite jig-sticks, but you might hate them.

Buy quality, a brand with a lifetime blank warranty. I prefer a 30lb-60lb line rating, as in rated for 40lb mono.

For you, Bob...a few blanks come to mind. Calstar has a nice 8' glass stick rated 30-60lb. This rod is a nice compromise for someone scared of going full length. From there, you might want to look at a Calstar 90J also, rated 30-60lb. Then, pull on the GG90J, same rating, but it's a composite graphite/glass rod. The Calstar GG90J has a signifigantly stiffer tip, but it's lighter and casts a little farther if you load it right. The first two Calstar rods here are made for throwing lighter irons: TadyC, Tady45, Candybars, smaller Megabaits and so on. The GG90J, with that stiffer tip can throw the lighter jigs and the larger jigs too, like say a Salas 7X.

I hope this helps, have fun shopping .

[dsafety]

Thanks Josh, I knew you were messing with me and appreciate your advice, but I really want to understand the whole thing about rod selection. Having me "pull" a rod at this point in my education is kind of like telling me to give Tiger Woods advice on club selection.

Hopefully someone in our clan will weigh in with answers to my questions.

Bob

[Billy V]

OK I see He answered.

After a brief period of using a 7' spinner to throw some small jigs, I was given a demonstration of what the long rod can do.
It didn't take any further discussion, the demonstration was clear.

Go Big or Go Home. If you want to throw big jigs like the 7x, or Heavier, you will need a 25-60, 30-50, 30-60 rod. Preferably 9ft. I do also have an 8' 6" Shimano Calcutta that I like very much as well.

I like a jig stick with a stiff tip, but this is going to be a personal preference area. In addition to the retailers that Josh mentioned I will also suggest going to Angler's Choice. They have a large selection of jig sticks in a variety of weights.

The rods I have been using "daily" for the last few weeks are a Phenix Black Diamond PSW909 XH 25-60 9ft. and a Shimano Calcutta 30-50 XH 8'6"
Both are composite (another personal choice) light, stiff, and strong.

Good Luck with your shopping, and take your time selecting a good one they are not cheap.
-Here is some verbiage on the long rod, I hope it will help shed some light.
http://fish.shimano.com/publish/cont.../rods/0/0.html

-I recently installed a cork puppy on both sticks to displace the reel clamp pressure, and for additional holding power.

[Ocean-Angler]

If you want something strong and LONG, cant beat a Kencor Graphite spiral

9' 30-80#
and its probably one of the lightest for its strength
I sell them for about $135 new

Billy, that clamp is bad ass!!!

heres some pics ( this is the 8'er)

[Matt]

For surface iron there really is only one word ULUA!!!

For the yoyo I use a heavy calstar rated 30-60 and a torium or a trinidad 16 or 20 they both work great, I also recently bought a daiwa saltist that I have been quite happy using!!

[j mo]

I was just in Blue Water and they have a nice selection of Calstars- I saw one used 90j deck hand special for $200- it was in near perfect condition